logosmatlab2tikz
As the author of the free and open-source package matlab2tikz, I was going to create a nice-looking logo for the software that is easily recognized on MATLAB's file exchange and representative of matlab2tikz' capabilities.
Any ideas for combining MATLAB with the awesomeness of LaTeX in one iconic figure?
You could work around the problem by providing the x, y and z unit vectors explicitly yourself:
\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usepackage{pgfplots}
\pgfplotsset{compat=newest}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[%
area legend,
xlabel={Ost [m]},
xmajorgrids,
ylabel={Nord [m]},
x={(0.0001cm,0.00005cm)}, y={(-0.0001cm,0.00005cm)}, z={(0cm,0.2cm)},
ymajorgrids,
zmin=8.46471544296322,
zmax=16.9194594285807,
zlabel={$\text{U [ms}^{\text{-1}}\text{]}$},
zmajorgrids,
axis lines*=left,
colormap/violet
]
\addplot3[patch,forget plot] table[point meta=\thisrow{c}]{data.dat};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}
With regard to scaling plots, there are a few options. Is there anything else you want to do?
When using matlab2tikz you can specify the width and height of figures:
matlab2tikz('nameoffile.tex','width','8cm','height','4cm');
Note that, if I remember correctly, this will set the size of just the axis. Hence, the total width will be 8cm + the width of yticks, ylabel, and other stuff next to the axis itself.
This won't help you with scaling the plots on the LaTeX end of course, but what you can do instead is to set the width to macros that you define in your LaTeX document. For example, you can say
matlab2tikz('nameoffile.tex','width','\figW','height','\figH');
in Matlab, and have a LaTeX file such as
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots,amsmath}
\newlength\figH
\newlength\figW
\setlength{\figH}{4cm}
\setlength{\figW}{8cm}
\begin{document}
Some text, then a centred plot:
\begin{center}
\input{firstplot}
\end{center}
More text, then a wider plot:
\begin{center}
\setlength{\figW}{10cm} % when added inside the center environment it has no effect outside it
\input{secondplot}
\end{center}
\end{document}
You also have the option to specify additional options for the tikzpicture and axis environments generated by matlab2tikz. This way you can set a scale parameter for one of them, and have a macro holding the value. In Matlab, do
matlab2tikz('nameoffile.tex','extraAxisOptions','scale=\figurescale');
and have a LaTeX file as
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots,amsmath}
\newcommand\figurescale{1} % set default scaling to 1
\begin{document}
Some text, then a centred plot:
\begin{center}
\input{firstplot}
\end{center}
More text, then a twice as wide plot:
\begin{center}
\renewcommand{\figurescale}{2} % when added inside the center environment it has no effect outside it
\input{secondplot}
\end{center}
\end{document}
Adding the scale parameter to the axis will not change the size of tick labels and axis labels. If you use 'extraTikzpictureOptions','scale=\figurescale in the call to matlab2tikz, instead of 'extraAxisOptions', scaling will change the size of axis labels etc.
tikzscale package(I totally forgot to add this option, which is actually quite convenient. SOrry about that.)
The tikzscale package modifies the \includegraphics command so that it can be used instead of \input for .tikz files, and the same scaling options can be used.
Note that you must use .tikz as the file ending, .tex is not recognized.
A quick code example:
\documentclass{article}%
\usepackage{pgfplots,filecontents}
\usepackage{tikzscale}
% the filecontents environment writes its content to the specified file
\begin{filecontents*}{fig.tikz}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}
\addplot{x};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{filecontents*}
\begin{document}
\includegraphics{fig.tikz}
\includegraphics[width=.7\linewidth]{fig.tikz}
\includegraphics[height=6cm]{fig.tikz}
\end{document}
Lastly a note about your second code snippet:
\begin{figure}[scale=0.5]
\center
\input{/path/fig.tex}
\end{figure}
There are two things that are wrong here.
figure environment is just a floating container in which you can put stuff, such as images. It has no options for scaling or similar, so [scale=0.5] does nothing here.\centering, not \center. There is also a center environment, used as \begin{center} ... \end{center}, but within figures it is recommended to use \centering (see Should I use center or centering for figures and tables?).
Best Answer
This is courtesy of my friend Ariel:
And its evolution and variations: